Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-05-30
LITERARY WOMEN'S ATTIRE.
Gowns and FurbelOws Peculiar o tho Clever
Women of the Present Generation.
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women or the Present Generation
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There seems to be prevalent opinion
| that literary women are like the illus
! trious Mrs. Jellyby, slovenly in their
dress as well as negligent in their house
keeping. Both of these charges remain
to be proved, however, and the examina-
tion of the first will DE quite enough for
once. Jane Austin and her sister
were remarkably neat in their dress, but
rather unheedful of the fashion
able and becoming. 1t is said that they
took to the costume of middle life 2before
their looks or years required it. Joanna
Baillie was fo0d of dress, and dressed
exquisitely. With delicate, graceful
figure, not lATge-boned, like many En-
glish women, she wore her own gra7
hair and pretty brown silk gowns
and bonnets-iust right for an
old lady. Mary Lamb, the de-
voted sister of the delightful Charles,
was neat and plain in her dress, but she
did not change much with the fashions.
However. she affected no indiferences
to this delightful subject. She wrote to
friend: "I do dearly love worked mus
Iin,n and she took great delight in Ger
tain silks sent to her by friend in China.
silk, aud for great occasions
with a handkerchief of snoW-Thite
muslin folded across her BOSOM" and a
cap, then in fashion, with deep frilled
border and bow on top. At William
Hazlitt's wedding she had great difficulty
in deciding whether her bridesmaids
dress should be "sprigged gown" or a
"dead-whitish bloom color" silk. With
all her daintiness, she often dipped her
delicate white hand into her tortoise shell
snuff box.
RWhen Charlotte Bronte went to Lon
don, about the time "Shirley" was pub
lished, she is described as ''a youngqook.
ing lady, almost childlike in stature, in a
deep mourning dress neat as Quaker's 3"
Indeed, neatness was charac-
teristic of her dress, and the COW
ering5 of her hands and feet were
always extremely dainty. She loved
modest apparel and thought a pink
lined bonnet too gay for her, while she
did not buy "beautiful silks of pale sweet |
colors" at five shillings, as she chad |
not the spirit nor the means" but chose |
q black silk at three shillings a yard. |
Emily Bronte was dressed while at school |
in Brussels in Lieut. lank skirts and leg |
o. mutton sleeves, which she liked and
wore whether in or ont of fashion. Har-
riet Mar.ineGu is described IS plainly |
dressed.
OF George Eliot's clothes we know lit
tie, save that her gowns we're plain and
that over her ABUNDANT hair, still I'M
touched oy gray, she wore cap Of lace
or muslin, with lappets OF rich point or
fastened under her chin.
When Georges Sand vas yet q young girl
she wore Boys blouse and CATERS for q
ramble over her rough country, and
later in Paris she continued to go about
like collegisn of sixteen, in all wealth
ers, places and times. As an excuse
it may be said that women's clothes
then were very perishable. and listers and ]
thick walking boots were not necessary il
part Of a womsn's wardrobe. Eugene
Delscroix painted a picture of Georges
Sand in 1888, where she is represented in
| masculine redingote and loose silk tie.